A group of broadcasters withdrew a 2012 petition for reconsideration that had challenged rules requiring disclosure of political ad rate information, said a withdrawal filing posted online Friday. "It is axiomatic that disclosure of price information is anti-competitive and disrupts markets," said the original petition jointly filed by Cox Media, Dispatch Broadcast, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Hearst, Media General, Meredith, Graham Media, Raycom and Schurz Communications. An attorney representing the broadcasters in the proceeding didn't comment.
At the end of the 2014 campaign, the ratio of political advertising time to political news stories on Philadelphia’s major TV stations was 45:1, said a study released Thursday from Philly Political Media Watch. In the eight weeks leading up to the election, it said viewers of the top six stations in Philadelphia were bombarded with nearly 12,000 ads designed to influence the outcome. The study was a collaboration between technologists, academics, journalists and civic activists, funded by the Democracy Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation and led by the Internet Archive. Other major participating organizations were the Sunlight Foundation, the Committee of Seventy and the University of Delaware’s Center for Community Research and Service. The study was based on an examination of political ad and news broadcasts in the Philadelphia market, chosen for the pilot project because of its size and a coverage area that includes parts of three states, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Candidates and outside groups spent more than $15 million Sept. 1-Nov. 4 to air nearly 14,000 TV ads on the stations in the entire Philadelphia market, including surrounding municipalities and some small stations in New Jersey, the report said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau is seeking comment on an application for a new Travelers Information Station (TIS) to operate on 1670 kHz in southeastern Chester County, Pennsylvania, said a public notice posted online Friday. Avon Grove Regional Emergency Management Agency also asked the bureau for waivers of antenna height and field strength limits for the station, which it says won't interfere with other broadcasters. Comments are due April 20, replies May 5.
The FCC should create a path for low-power TV stations that survive the post-incentive auction repacking and meet certain criteria to become Class A stations, said Capitol Broadcasting in an ex parte filing Thursday. The same suggestion was earlier made by Gray TV and DTV America. The criteria for stations to go Class A wouldn't require the commission to grant priority based on the type of programming provided, but instead to do so "based on requirements that LPTV stations be operational and commit to providing a certain level of service to the local community,” Capitol said.
If the FCC grants Pandora’s application to buy KXMZ(FM), Box Elder, South Dakota, the FCC should “condition the grant on Pandora's agreement not to assert entitlement to the [American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers] Radio Group License prior to January 1, 2017,” ASCAP said in an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-109 Wednesday. Pandora has been seeking to buy the station since 2013 (see 1306170033). “This would allow Pandora to own KXMZ, which is what it says it wants, but it would mitigate the public interest harms by enabling the music industry, radio broadcasters and Pandora to continue ongoing efforts to resolve issues that, if not resolved, threaten to lead music licensors to take steps that would ultimately impact negatively the bulk of the commercial radio industry,” said ASCAP. Songwriters and music publishers have said that Pandora’s purchase of the station could provide the digital broadcaster with the same publishing royalty rates as terrestrial competitors, which would provide the former with a competitive advantage.
The FCC should preserve one noncommercial educational channel in each community during the post-incentive auction repacking, said Association of Public Television Stations President Patrick Butler and other APTS, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS officials in a meeting with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly Monday, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-268 Wednesday. Holding space for an NCE channel would “allow any broadcaster to volunteer to participate in the incentive auction, and at the same time would continue the Commission’s well-established reserved spectrum policy by ensuring space for a new entrant in the event that an unserved area develops,” the filing said. The FCC also should grant priority status to displacement applications for translators connected with NCE stations after the auction, the public TV representatives said. The FCC should avoid repacking any stations into the new wireless bands, the filing said. The commission should “maintain a contiguous television broadcast band due to the insurmountable challenges with implementation of a repacking plan that intermingles broadcast and wireless services in the 600 MHz Band,” the filing said.
The FCC shouldn't stop broadcasters from pre-empting political advertisers using last-in, first-out (LIFO) policies, broadcast companies, associations and affiliate groups said in reply comments in docket 15-24, responding to Canal Partners Media’s request that the commission do so. “The law requires that stations treat candidates as well as they treat their best commercial advertisers -- but stations certainly are not required to provide candidates with better treatment than their best commercial advertisers,” said Media General, echoing NAB, Sinclair and every other entity that filed reply comments. It would be “a mistake” for the FCC to start dictating the way stations sell advertising time, said the ABC affiliates. CBS and NBC affiliate groups also opposed Canal in their reply comments, and nearly all endorsed NAB’s position opposing the change. NAB has acknowledged that the LIFO policies favor commercial advertisers over political candidates, Canal said, pointing to an NAB publication called The Political Broadcast Catechism. Canal also said TV stations haven't been disclosing their LIFO policies to political ad buyers, and disputed that blocking LIFO policies would elevate candidates over other advertisers. “Until someone becomes a “legally qualified candidate,” that person "cannot get in line to establish a position in the LIFO pecking order,” Canal said. “But commercial advertisers can get in the LIFO line whenever they want.”
The FCC Media Bureau put a freeze on certain filings connected with Auction 98, it said in a public notice Monday. The affected filings include applications to modify Auction 98 FM allotments; petitions that propose a change in channel, class or community for allotments scheduled for the auctions; or any petition that fails to “fully protect any Auction 98 Allotment," the PN said. “This freeze will automatically terminate the day after the filing deadline for post-Auction 98 long form applications,” the PN said. ”This temporary freeze is designed to promote a more certain and speedy auction process.”
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on the Radio Broadcasters Coalition's petition for a class waiver of the sponsorship identification requirements, the bureau said in a public notice posted Friday in docket 15-52. The coalition filed a petition Nov. 26 seeking a waiver of the requirement that broadcasters air sponsorship identification announcements at the time sponsored material is broadcast, the bureau said. The coalition requested radio broadcasters that air music or sports programming be allowed to provide information about sponsored material through less frequent on-air announcements with enhanced online disclosures, it said. This waiver would extend to music and sports programming on radio stations that have websites, but not to sponsored content within news, informational or political programming. The waiver will give broadcasters of music and sports programming more flexibility to provide this information in a consumer-friendly and modern way that uses the Internet, the coalition said. Comments are due April 13, replies May 12.
HBO Now, HBO’s stand-alone offering, is a Comcast competitor, TDG Research analyst Alan Wolk said in a note Thursday. HBO Now is suited for cord-nevers and cord cutters, he said. Comcast hopes its customers will use X1 and X2 set-tops, while other multichannel video programming distributors could shift to a bring-your-own-device system, he said. Set-top boxes are dated, difficult to update and unreliable, he said. Customers could buy Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV or Roku and MVPDs could provide an app, he said. Operators could instead offer branded devices and make customers install and maintain them, he said. “This would take the onus to provide STBs off the operator” and allow more frequent updates, Wolk said. Comcast wants to control its interface and “create a standard for the industry,” selling X1 and X2 to peers, he said. The set-top could include streaming services, like Amazon or Netflix, he said. Pay-TV subscribers who have HBO Go have “the best of both worlds” with HBO live through set-tops and on-demand through an app, he said. HBO Go is available on mobile and in-home connected devices at no extra charge, he said. MVPDs shouldn’t worry about HBO-subscribing customers deserting them, he said. To keep HBO customers, MVPDs can offer a lower package price, add 10 MB of Internet speed for free or give two free years of HBO for renewals, he said.